How do cows give birth?

Answer 1

At first, in her first stage of labour, she will be pacing around, laying down then getting up repeatedly, then stopping suddenly as if she's straining (which she probably is). You will see a thick mucus discharge from her vulva, soon followed by a water sac (yellowish in colour). The uterine muscular contractions are responsible for the birthing process, as well as gravity itself. Muscular contractions come and go once every 5 to 10 seconds, especially when she's in her second stage of labour (which involves pushing out the calf). Soon after the water sac appears you should be able to see feet sticking out, and these feet should have the bottoms pointing downwards, indicating that the calf is coming front first (which is the right way). You should also see that BOTH feet are coming out; if there's just one you might want to consider getting the cow in a head-gate for you to go in and bring the leg up or get the vet to do it. Soon after the fore feet and the first part of the legs show, the nose, muzzle and head soon follow, followed by the shoulders. After the shoulders the rest pop out easily, however trouble can also come if the hips get locked in the cow's pelvis. Don't hesitate to help her out then either if she doesn't progress to dropping the rest of the calf. But if the hips don't get locked, before you know it you'll have a new baby calf on the ground.

If you see just the feet and/or nose peeking through the vagina, but notice she hasn't progressed after an hour or two, then it's time to get her in the head gate (or calving pen) to reach in and help sort things out for her. If it's a breach calf you HAVE to work quickly, more quicker than a normal-presented calf, because he'll be wanting to start breathing as soon as he gets out of the womb. If it's anything but a breach calf, including problems like head turned back, one leg or both legs turned back, back legs are too far up, shoulder lock, or hip lock, then you (or the vet) has to go in to reposition the calf accordingly, slip the calving chains over the calf's forelegs (a double half-hitch is best, with both half-hitch ties separated by the knee joint of the calf), then start pulling out and down when the cow pushes. But if you or the vet notice that the calf is just too big (or the pelvic area is too small) for the calf to naturally pass through, then you'll have to get the vet to do a C-section on the cow. Some ranchers have some vet training themselves that they don't need to call a vet to do a Caesarian on one of their cows, but most others have no choice.

The third stage of labour involves the cow pushing out the placenta. This occurs soon after birth (however, cows that have had a C-section done often get the placenta carefully removed as well, if the vet's THAT good), and can last from 6 hours to even up to 10 days, if she has retained the placenta. If the cow has retained the placenta but is not showing any signs of illness (like infection), then don't interfere, and just let her do her thing. The placenta will come out on its own eventually.

Check out the related links for pictures on how cows give birth. The best link below is the one from CattleToday.com